flickering colours

Control Freak

So Sony has finally 'revealed' its worst-kept secret ever, the Playstation Move controller. Within seconds of the announcements (and before them too really) the Wii-mote rip-off claims started flying. This strikes me as such a predictable knee-jerk reaction to the leet kids out there who want to come off as superiour by being able to 'criticise' something and sound insightful. These critics act like this has never happened before, and further, that it is a bad thing... Let's have a look at a number of the controllers or 'gamepads' as they used to be called, and see who started copying who, when.

I'm going to start this discussion at the third generation of console, because the first two generations were so full of one-off consoles that had either IDENTICAL joystick and paddle controllers, or wildly different and practically unusable controllers. Many of these are virtually unrecognisable to gamers today and would be quite useless in modern games.

So the third generation was heralded by the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1983. This was the FamiCom in Japan, and had a controller that proved to be versatile enough to support the hundreds of games released on the console--something previous controllers did not have to cope with. The iconic D-pad and 2 action buttons configuration was actually a reversal of how joysticks and paddles were used previously. The Directional pad is controlled by the left thumb, where previous controllers were (generally) set up to control movement with the right hand.

The following generation did little to change the nature of the controllers, save for rounding them a little to make them fit more comfortably in a hand. Anyone who spend enough time with a NES controller will remember the sore spots (and bruises) in the palm where the corner of the controller sat... or at least I do. See for example the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive (1988). Similar face buttons, trading the 'Select' button for an extra action button.

In 1990 Nintendo released the Super NES, a seminal system for my own personal gaming experience. The SNES controller took the rounded cue from the Genesis style controller, and added the now-standard L and R shoulder buttons. There were now 4 face action buttons, along with the same Start/Select configuration the NES had.

In 1994, we have the Sony Playstation, probably the most often used controller in history. Sony took exactly the same button configuration from the SNES controller, and fit it into a more 'three-dimensional' controller. Up to this point, controllers had been relatively flat, whether rounded or not. The Playstation controller had a handle-like grip on either side of the controller that extended downwards, so the controller wouldn't lay flat on a surface, but was more comfortable in the hand than others at the time.

Nintendo dreamed up an entirely new controller style for the Nintendo 64 in 1996. The genius of this controller was, in my opinion, unrealised because of the nature of the subsequent software released for the console. The three prongs (taking some cues from the Playstation) allowed for two different grip styles. The 'standard' grip would allow the player to use a normal D pad and the right hand face buttons like Playstation or SNES controller. There were shoulder triggers on either side, and an array of face buttons on the left. However, the N64 controller came equipped with an analogue joystick in the middle, which was used by holding the larger centre prong. There was a trigger button on the underside of this prong as well.

The fact that Super Mario 64 was released with the N64 arguably changed the standard of gaming forever, moving from 2D to 3D. With this seminal release, it is difficult to imagine reverting back to a 2D platformer that would make use of the D-pad. If, however, Mario 64 hadn't been released, or not so early, one can imagine many more 2D style games on the console, where having a simple D-pad would have been a terribly useful. However, D-pads still have a place alongside analogue joysticks today.

The N64 controller also had an interface jack on the back, which allowed players to add a Rumble Pak for vibration feedback, or memory cards for storing data. It could also be used to interface with GameBoy games. This feature has since been picked up by other controllers, including the next one here.

In 1998, Sony released an updated Playstation controller: the DualShock. Taking cues from the N64, not one but two joysticks were added to the original Playstation controller, which was otherwise unchanged. Some buttons were made pressure sensitive, but were not moved, nor was the shape of the controller changed except to accommodate the joysticks at the bottom. This design has persisted again largely unchanged until the present day.

The Sega Dreamcast was released in 1999 with poor results. However, the size and shape of its controller were a precursor to the far more successful Microsoft X-Box in 2001. If one were to whittle some of the excess plastic down, the Dreamcast would look a lot like a Playstation controller, except for that analog stick on the left side. That said, the joystick and D-pad configuration on the Dreamcast controller is virtually identical to the X-Box. The Dreamcast also sports symmetrical triggers on the underside, much like the N64 had on the middle prong.

As mentioned, the original X-Box controller was very similar to the Dreamcast. Both were confoundingly huge! The X-Box and Dreamcast both took a cue from the N64 by placing a D-pad alongside the analog stick, to be operated one at a time by the left thumb. This seems to now be the standard, a streamlined version of Nintendo's 1996 design.

The Nintendo Gamecube was released a few months prior to the X-Box, and is shaped similarly to the Playstation's controller, but also something like a VirtualBoy controller, or the N64 without the middle prong. Like its contemporaries, the D pad and joystick sit under the left thumb. On the right side, the four yellow C buttons evolved into an analog stick. So, again, a standard set by the 1996 controller continues, even down to the convention of using this stick, and those on other controllers in a similar position, to control the in-game camera.

The Gamecube also featured two analog triggers under each index finger. These could be pressed down by degrees, and so allow gentle accelleration in driving games, for example. They could also be pressed down, and 'clicked' like a normal button at the bottom of their range of movement. In addition, the Z button from the N64 was moved to the just above the right trigger, foreshadowing the quad-trigger setup of today.

So with the Playstation and Gamecube, the shape of modern controllers is fairly well set. The X-Box 360 controller is a streamlined version of its predecessor, and the DualShock 3 on the Playstation 3 has hardly changed. They both feature the same analog triggers with clickable shoulder buttons above them, just as the SNES and Gamecube foreshadow.

So, we can clearly see that console manufacturers have been swapping ideas back and forth for decades now. Some features have remained remarkably unchanged since as early as 1983. Why is this such a surprise? The shape of the human hand has also not changed much in the last 30 years. These devices are designed to fit comfortably in our hands, so it is unsurprising that they begin to look similar after countless refinements, since they all have the same end purpose.

A final note regarding the Wii and PS Move: the Wii has been touted as a major innovation in controller design, and I agree that it is. So was the SNES controller, so were the N64 and Gamecube controller. That Sony have followed in the footsteps of Nintendo, as they did after the SNES is hardly surprising. Do you want them not to? Would you really want to pick up a controller and not know how to use it? Would you want to get in a car and not know how to operate it because its control layout was so different to your own? I think not.

And keep in mind, just because the Wii is said to be an innovation doesn't mean it wasn't without some precedent. The motion-sensative Wii-mote is the most often applauded part, but the nunchuk component is what makes most games playable. Compare that (and the Move's left hand component) to this controller from 1976. Yes, its a joystick you hold in one hand. Looks familiar, no?